bash related question

Menestrel · 01-25-2005, 10:45 AM

Hello, I'm trying to understand a cron job in Slackware 10.

There is a line like:
47 * * * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.hourly 1>/dev/null

I don't understand what that 1 stands for.... Can anybody help a newbie ?

atom · 01-25-2005, 10:56 AM

/usr/bin/run-parts is the command that is run
/etc/cron.hourly is it's commandline argument.
1>/dev/null is the redirection of the program's stdout (the normal, non-error output) to /dev/null. Had it been 2> it would have ment the redirection of the program's error (stderr) output to /dev/null. Had it been &> it would have ment both, the stdout and stderr.

Hope this sheds some light on the matter...

Gasper

jonaskoelker · 01-25-2005, 11:03 AM

Hi.

1: Read 'how to ask questions the smart way' (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html).
2: stw and rtm; if you don't know what these tlas mean, goto 1; if you don't know what tla means, stw.

hope this helps,

Jonas